Thursday, 18 September 2014

Gigantosaurus

When young
dinosaurs go out to play they need to keep an eye out for danger, especially
the hungry Gigantosaurus.

His feet go
STOMP!

His jaws go CRUNCH!

In the blink of an eye

you'd be his lunch!

But what happens
when the dinosaur on lookout, a mischievous Bonehead, decides to play a
prehistoric version of the boy who cried wolf?

This is a noisy
book in the best of ways. It has a rollicking rhythm, beautiful rhyme and is
full of thuds, stomps, burps and other fabulously loud sounds. It exudes energy
and humour and has the feel of The Three Little Pigs about it. From the
first page it just begs to be read aloud.

When Bonehead
calls out that the predator is on its way the young dinosaurs run to hide.

They ran!

They hid!

They shook with fear!

The Gigantosaurus was coming near!

And when, after
many false sightings, Gigantosaurus really does appear, the page folds upwards
to become double the height to accommodate the truly huge and awe inspiring
meat eater.

Some of the
dialogue is in speech bubbles (which still carry the wonderful rhythm and
rhyme) and these bubbles become part of the playful illustrations. The picture
on the front cover conveys the characters of the dinosaurs and hints at the
role each one will play in the story. These characteristics remain consistent
throughout the illustrations.

At the end of the
book are two pages with pictures and factual explanations of the dinosaurs
throughout the story. This is written in the same tone as the story and will
keep dinosaur mad pre-schoolers who want to learn a little about these
prehistoric animals happy.

This is such a
fun book. It is fantastic to read and there is so much detail in the
illustration to keep kids and their adult readers coming back again and again.